The parades of broken streetlights in Detroit – darkened by blown bulbs or by thieves who have made off with the wiring – have long been a symbol of the once-great city's long decline. But as the home of Motown and the Mustang is forced to downsize, its leaders have a solution: eliminate almost half of them for good.

Joe Orton's famous sex farce is the latest addition to theatreland's retro craze. Despite being funny and well acted, it's jokes are showing their age

The humiliation of once-proud Detroit, cradle of the American automobile industry and of the sound that became known simply as Motown, seems to know no end as the city has reluctantly and angrily agreed for the first time to share control of its future destiny with the penny-pinchers from far-away Lansing, the state capital.

Ford hiked its chief executive's pay package by 11 per cent last year to $29.5m (£18m), even though the US car giant fell short on some key company targets.

As Republican primary voters go to the polls in Michigan today, the US President Barack Obama will be trumpeting the renaissance of the state's auto industry, born of a taxpayer bailout in the depths of the recession which both current Republican front-runners say should never have been approved.

Blemished by a botched rally in a near-empty Detroit stadium and an unfortunate boast about his collection of cars, Mitt Romney was last night stumbling towards primary contests in two key American states on Tuesday that could determine the future of his quest for the Republican nomination.

But wealth of 'poorest' candidate sets him apart from blue-collar image he is trying to project

Whitney Houston left behind two new songs and a movie performance that insiders say would have been "a big, big comeback" for her this year.

German car giant Volkswagen said today that it saw sales of more than eight million vehicles last year, putting it ahead of Japan's Toyota.

Its adverts urge Americans to "never stop improving". But if the good people at Lowe's, one of the nation's largest DIY chains, are true to their word, they may want to take a long, hard look at their chief executive's grasp of PR.

Over the past 14 years, Calexico have released eight limited-edition tour CDs, available only at their shows, but now compiled together as a 12 LP vinyl box set, Selections from Road Atlas 1998-2011, of similar scarcity.

Soul Time! is a near-perfect expression of retro-soul style that grips from its opening bars.

A stunt wing walker has died after falling about 60 metres as horrified crowds looked on at an air show in the state of Michigan.